Past Speakers
envision2020 - February 2011
Dr. Ben Bradshaw
Ben's research broadly seeks to identify the economic, political and cultural determinants of environmental degradation in Western society, and the various tools of governance that might best alleviate such degradation. To date, case studies have been drawn from mining (e.g. company-community agreements, corporate social responsibility), forestry (e.g. community forestry), and agriculture (trade liberalization, climate change).
Sarah Elton
Sarah Elton is the author of Locavore: From Farmers' Fields To Rooftop Gardens, How Canadians Are Changing the Way We Eat. She is the food columnist for CBC Radio's Here&Now and writes regularly for publications such as Maclean's, The Globe and Mail, and The Atlantic's Food Channel.
Check out The Locavore Sarah on twitter: @thelocavore Dr. Evan Fraser
Evan Fraser is an adjunct professor of geography at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds in the UK. His research is on farming, climate change and the environment. He lives in the Yorkshire Dales with his wife and three children.
Dr. Fraser on twitter: @evandgfraser Dr. Fraser's latest book: Empires of Food Featured in: The Globe and Mail, CBC Quirks and Quarks Wayne Galliher
Wayne Galliher is Project Manger of the City of Guelph’s Water Conservation Program. As Water Conservation Project Manager, Wayne lead development of the City’s 2009 Water Conservation and Efficiency Strategy and is responsible for all operational and program activities under the City’s Water Conservation Program. Wayne has worked within the Ontario municipal water sector since 2003, over which time he has held positions within water treatment operations, water infrastructure planning and water demand management.
Dr. Karen Landman
Karen Landman is an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development. Her background is varied, and includes horticulture, landscape architecture, rural planning and cultural geography. Current interests can be conveniently collapsed into the ‘greening’ of our environment, from the urban core, to the near-urban, to the rural landscape, and with a particular eye on collaboration opportunities. Urban agriculture offers interesting design opportunities for landscape architects and land-use challenges to planners; community development is at the core of most urban agriculture projects. A recent sabbatical offered opportunities to investigate the urban agriculture movement in North America.
Émanuèle Lapierre-Fortin
Émanuèle Lapierre-Fortin has been engaged in community economic development and sustainability for the past four years. She has acted as a researcher on Education for Sustainable Development best practices at the Toronto Environment Office, as an International Consultant on social entreprise development for HIV/AIDS NGOs in Burkina Faso for the United Nations’ World Food Program and as a Ride Leader for a 4000km bicycle ride, from Amsterdam to Istanbul, which raised $70,000 for a youth-managed microcredit fund. As part of her MSc studies in Rural Planning & Development, she is researching ways in which rural communities are increasing their resilience to climate change and rising energy prices through mobilizing community capital, as well as undertaking an analysis of the Green Energy Act and completing an inventory of community energy projects in Canada. She enjoys playing the fiddle, vegetarian cooking and planning events and projects of all denominations.
Jamie Miller
Jamie Miller is a member of the Biomimicry Speaker's Bureau and an Environmental Engineering PhD student at the University of Guelph. He is currently helping coordinate a biomimicry collaboration at the University of Guelph and pursuing research in the area of biomimicry and basic human needs. Named as a "New Centurion" by The David Suzuki Foundation, Jamie's work in Indonesia and Sri Lanka have helped inspire his efforts in education and curricula reform, where he continues to work on transforming our perception of nature and our relationship with technology, through a lens of global equality and sustainability.
President Alastair Summerlee
President Summerlee, whose career as a scholar, professor, researcher and administrator spans nearly 30 years, joined the University of Guelph faculty in 1988 as a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. He was named an associate dean of the Ontario Veterinary College in 1992, dean of graduate studies in 1995, associate vice-president (academic) in 1999, and provost and vice-president (academic) in 2000.
In 2006, Dr. Summerlee was named as the chair of the board of directors of World University Service of Canada (WUSC), one of the country's leading international development agencies. WUSC teams with students, faculty and institutions to internationalize Canada’s universities, increase knowledge of global issues and foster human development through education and training. President Summerlee on twitter: @UoG_President Abid Virani
Abid Virani is a young philanthropist with a passion for youth engagement, HIV/AIDS and writing. When Abid was fifteen years old, he began blogging about world issues. Overtime, he co-founded Student Reach International, a non-profit organization committed to engaging youth in humanitarian initiatives. This year, SRI will receive charitable status under the name of I Have Hope In The Fight Against AIDS. He is the recipient of many accolades, including the Canadian Top 20 Under 20 award. Currently, Abid is studying international development at the University of Guelph and working on a book titled, “Finding hope in a scary world.” Abid on twitter: @AbidVirani Abid Virani’s blog. |
   
|
More Than Meets the Eye - April 2010
Dr. Madhur Anand
Madhur Anand is an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Ecological Change and has continually worked to draw international attention to the complexity and chaotic behaviour of ecological systems. Madhur is also a poet, having published poetic works in The Malahat Review, Room, Grain, The New Quarterly and CV2. She has also been nominated for the Puschcart Prize (2007) and is co-editor of the anthology entitledRegreen: New Canadian Ecological Poetry (2009).
Dr. Pat Barclay
Pat Barclay is a Professor of neuroscience at the University of Guelph. His areas of interest include evolution, cooperation, altruism, game theory & experimental economics. More specifically he focuses on costly cooperation and punishment within human groups in social dilemmas such as the provision of public goods. Doctor Barclay uses an evolutionary psychological framework to generate hypotheses about human prosocial behavior. By using this approach, his research tries to understand when and why people act altruistically, what design features in the brain promote altruistic behaviour, and what selective pressures could have resulted in the brain being designed this way. To do so, he typically uses experimental cooperative games involving money (such as the well-known Prisoner’s Dilemma and public goods games) where participants can make decisions that benefit themselves, others, or both. In addition, Doctor Barclay is beginning to develop mathematical models (evolutionary game theory) to advance theoretical understanding of cooperation.
Dr. Chris Bauch
Chris Bauch is an Associate Professor of mathematics at the University of Guelph. His areas of interest include differential equations, mathematical biology, infectious disease modeling, ecological modeling, game theory, applications of dynamical systems, health economics and vaccination policy. Specifically, Chris is focused on applying mathematics to problems related to infectious disease epidemiology and ecology. He is also a highly collaborative researcher, seeking to develop mathematical models and frameworks that will aid and assist professionals and academics in the fields of ecology, medicine and related health sciences. Since 2000, Dr. Bauch has authored or co-authored 35 academic publications in his related fields of study.
Dr. Hank Davis
Originally from New York, Hank Davis is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Guelph. After many years of research on Cognition in animals (e.g., counting, human recognition), Hank has studied Evolutionary Psychology for the past 12 years. His research has focused on popular culture and irrational belief systems. An award-winning teacher, Hank is the author of six books and more than 100 scientific papers. Davis is also an accomplished musician and producer of critically acclaimed reissue albums and boxed-sets for European record companies. Hank’s latest book Cavemanlogic deals with the humorous and sometimes dangerous mismatch between our Stone Age minds and the modern world.
Bogdana (Bob) Izdebskiego
‘Often sporting a cowboy hat, singing a Polish tune and strumming a guitar, Bogdana (Bob) Izdebskiego has been grilling up hot dogs, veggie dogs and sausages for the U of G community since 1999. He’s a fixture on campus, but his talents span far beyond the confines of his signature stand. In fact, the hard-working and personable vendor was once a Polish cinema star, appearing in more than 20 films and nearly a dozen television serials. At 22, he got married and soon after opened a small grocery business to supplement his income as an actor. On the side, he was building a house doing everything from hammering boards, painting and installing plumbing to building all of the furniture himself. He and his family came to live in Athens, Greece for five years before finally settling at Guelph in 1992. Here, Izdebskiego worked as a line worker at Magna International for six years before opening his first hot dog stand in Erin in 1998. A year later, he made the U of G campus his new set and the campus community his new audience. Bob believes “it’s better to try to do the things you love, rather than just sit around thinking about them.”‘ – Features | At Guelph
Tom Klein Beernink
Tom Klein Beernink is the Housing and Member Relations Manager for the Guelph Campus Co-operative. He has worked in the non-profit and co-operative sector for over 25 years, having served on numerous co-op and volunteer boards. He is the former Executive Director of the Ontario Environment Network and former co-ordinator of Guelph PIRG. Tom was also co-founder of the Guelph Round Table on the Environment and Economy and served as an appointed member to the Ontario Round Table. He was recipient of the commemorative medal for the 125th anniversary of confederation for significant contribution to community. Tom remains convinced that we either learn to co-operate or we die.
David Lawless
David is an environmental activist and undergraduate student studying Ecology at the University of Guelph. Committed to environmental causes all of his life, David helped the Ministry of Natural Resources undertake extensive habitat restoration projects while monitoring endangered species and conducting climate research across Canada. Last summer he was part of the top-placing Canadian team at the North American Envirothon competition in Arizona where he presented ideas for environmental change to U.S. policy-makers. This past August, he was selected as one of only five international youth delegates to the United Nations World Climate Conference in Geneva where he took part in working group sessions with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as panel discussions with Ban-Ki Moon and Kofi Annan. During the conference he helped the IPCC formulate a conference declaration later ratified by 150 nations. He believes that youth are not apathetic and are owed a chance to voice their ideas on the world stage.
Marina Ran
Marina is the President of the Canadian office of AIESEC (Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales), the world’s largest student-run organisation, which has facilitated over 60 years of youth leadership experiences internationally. As President, Marina is mandated to increase AIESEC’s scope and activity in its 28 Canadian university chapters, and impact the lives of more Canadian youth. Through AIESEC, Marina has travelled to 13 countries since 2007, spoken at over 10 AIESEC Canada conferences, and has met with government officials and senior VPs of some of Canada’s largest institutions. In June, Marina will be moving to the Netherlands to work for AIESEC’s international headquarters in Rotterdam.
Michael Ridley
Michael Ridley has been the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the University of Guelph since 2004 as well as serving as Chief Librarian since 1995. In this dualistic role, Michael serves as the chief administrator for the McLaughlin Library and as head of the University’s Computing and Communication Services (CCS). He has also been deeply involved with numerous professional associations and has earned distinguished recognition as a member of his field. In his role at the University of Guelph, Michael has been responsible for developing strategic planning and policy with respect to information resources, services and technology. Merging high-technology with old-fashioned print, students have Mr. Ridley to thank for the numerous systems and services that contribute to enhancing their learning experience while attending the University of Guelph.
Steve Sladkowski
Steve Sladkowski is a fourth-year President’s Scholar studying Music at the University of Guelph. His research interests include musical improvisation, jazz historiography, and the development of musical aesthetics in Western culture. He is an active performer, bandleader, and sessional musician in the Guelph and Toronto areas and is currently organizing the Guelph Improvised Music Series. Steve believes that our communities are full of a wide range of diversities and differences that somehow come together to make a complete, although not always harmonious whole. It is worth asking how this is done. The answer is simple: improvisation. We all improvise. Whether it be through conversation, cooking, creating music, or in some other daily activity, improvisation plays a central role in humanity and existence. As such, a band is a microcosm of the community in which it exists. Much like the members of a neighbourhood or city, the group of individuals that constitute a band are incredibly different from one another in many ways. Band members can come from different cultural, social, and aesthetic viewpoints which have an incredible effect on the way they hear, create, and understand music. These are some of the interesting dynamics that Steve will demonstrate musically as a performer at TEDxGuelphU.
Dr. Francis Tapon
Francis Tapon is a Professor of economics at the University of Guelph. His areas of interest include finance and the economics and strategic management of pharmaceutical companies. Francis is a well-published academic, having written pieces for prominent industry publications including, but not limited to the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Business, Economic Letters, Management Science, Managerial and Decision Economics, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Canadian Journal of Economics, R&D Managment, Applied Financial Economics and the Academic of Management Journal.
Daniella Villa
Daniella is a musician who’s passion for the performing arts began at a very young age. Having a variety of interests growing up, she started to develop her passion for voice in the beginning of high school. Having taken over 5 years of jazz vocal training, and being well versed in multiple genres and mediums of music, she started to develop her niche. For the past 7 years Daniella has been writing and developing her talent. Adding a personal twist to her repetoire, she will soon be releasing her first recordings.
|
